


Hello, I Do... I Hope

by ThatwasJustaDream



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, magical algorithm, soulmate-identifying machines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 12:18:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3569381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny Williams is done having his heart turned into mincemeat. So much so, he's willing to pay big bucks to a company claiming to hold the secret to perfect matches. But is this guy really his 'meant to be?'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WeakMoments](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeakMoments/gifts).



“Daniel Williams?” A voice asked from over his shoulder; forceful but not cold, deep with a sweet hint of a rasp to it.

Kinda sexy.

Danny looked up from the folder he'd spread out on the restaurant table, his eyes going from the color printout of a photo of a dark haired man with the serious face to the real thing standing next to him. The guy had his hands behind his back and feet set precisely apart like he was at attention.

“Yeah, uhhm… yes. Hi, Steven. Call me Danny, okay?” He gathered the paperwork, flicked the folder shut and tapped it with a finger. “Must have said that about me in the info they gave you. Right? That I go by Danny?”

“It did but, I wasn’t sure…” Steve looked briefly out at the ocean, a few hundred yards from the picnic table where they'd arranged to have their first lunch together. “….if that’s what you would really prefer. From the get-go, you know? You'll have to forgive me, I'm a little nervous.”

It was funny how he said it - so matter of fact, face straight, those blue grey eyes giving nothing away. Danny couldn't help the grin that spread over his own face. Either the guy was putting him on, here, or he was as hard core and compartmentalized as the info in the folder suggested he might be. 

If it were the later...how was this ever going to work? Thank God for both of them there was a legal 'out' in the contracts they'd signed, if they needed it.

“Yes. It's Danny. Please. C’mon and have a seat…Steve?” He got a nod in return and watched Steve comply with his invitation, sinking down gracefully onto the bench next to him.

Well, at least that felt hopeful; if Steve had any deep reservations, he'd have chosen the seat opposite him. 

Danny hadn't signed on the dotted line based on the marketing PR - he had done his own research: It was established fact that fewer than half the marriages arranged by Island Yenta Corporation were consummated. But the forty percent that did get hitched? There hadn't been a single divorce among them in twenty years of doing business. Granted, there'd been that one murder-suicide, and the woman who disappeared and was never heard from again but...you were gonna get a dud or two, even with the most perfect, highly touted, carefully protected computer algorithm in existence.

A formula for 'meant to be' - who wouldn't want to own that? If this worked out, Danny thought maybe he'd invest in them.

“Great, thanks. There you go, settle in and get comfy, okay? No need to be so formal. Plus, standing there… you ….were blocking the sun. And most of the beach. Damn.... you… you’re a big boy, huh?”

“Is… is that a problem?” Steve looked a little put off by his directness. “Are you … uh… dissatisfied?”

Steve didn’t use the word ‘already,’ but it was implied. 

“No, no, woah, sorry, wait….” Danny leaned in, hands flying in what he hoped were comforting gestures, touching his shoulder reassuringly. “I didn't mean to start us off on the wrong note. God, I’m …so not good at this.”

Disappointed? How could he be. Here was this guy dressed as casual as it got - dark blue t-shirt that clung to him like it was fitted by Armani, deep grey cargoes accentuating a bod and ass and legs to freaking die for; Steve wasn't even trying, really, hadn't bothered to wear suit trousers or a tie and still he was .... wow.

"To be blunt, I thought maybe they’d gotten some of the accounts out of order when they made the matches. Because at first glance… I feel less like I signed up for a mate and more like I hit the lottery. Damn..that was.. kind of crass, huh? Saying that based on a few pieces of paper in a folder and how you look?”

“It’s all right,” Steve was smiling, now, color rising over his cheekbones. “I’m sure we’re both nervous."

"In my experience, the best way past that is to open up a little. Share something. In detective work, it gets me way more than it ever costs me, so..." Danny pushed the folder in front of him away on the table. "How about you tell me something I'm not gonna find in there? Tell me why you - tall, smart, handsome, naval intelligence officer - paid some nice computer fifteen grand to spit out the directions to your perfect match?"

"Sure you don't want to start out with something ...more cheerful?" Steve said, but the smile had turned into a self-deprecating grin and wasn't that lovely? "The answer... I don't know, it might send you running."

"Mine won't be all sunshine and rainbows either, buddy," Danny braved reaching out to run a palm over, and this time hold, the shoulder of the man he was technically already engaged to. "Just dive in. Okay?"


	2. It's in his hug...

“That can’t be right. Can it?” Danny shifted the shoes he was carrying from one hand to the other and dodged the waves threatening to engulf his rolled-up pants legs. “Every single person in your life? Gone? That… seems so …”

Brutal? Strange? Borderline-cursed, maybe? 

The rest of his thought went unsaid, dwindling away on the sea breeze.

“Well, It’s not as if they all died on me, Danny,” Steve seemed to pick up on his tone, the note of ‘are you sure you’re not poison?’ in it. “After my dad sent Mary and me away, we gradually lost touch. I talk with her on the phone once in a while, and with my Aunt Deb, but…. I haven’t seen them since I was nineteen. When I was in Annapolis…”

“Wow, I can’t… imagine. My sisters, my brother… if we went that long without talking? Well, it wouldn’t ever happen. Not judging you, honestly, I’m not. Just saying I can’t quite get my head around it.”

Steve kept walking, eyes on the sand; he had nothing to say back to that, apparently.

They’d talked through lunch and into the afternoon. Steve started with going beyond the basics that were in the folder they’d each been given, and then Danny added his details and more - told Steve his tales of marital hope, bliss, decay and misery as well. It didn’t seem to scare Steve off even a jot, the fact that he had not only a past but also a daughter and an ex-wife who lived here on the island. 

Now they were walking the beach along Waikiki, extending their date well into their Saturday afternoon, getting their toes wet and watching the tourists swim.

“How about school friends?” Danny asked, almost hoping Steve would say something like, ‘oh, yeah, hell, tons of those around.’

The way he shrugged and flinched made his heart sink for him a little.

“I was on the quiet side in school. Only had one close friend. We served together and he died in combat. We were…um… pinned in by snipers on a mission and….he… well, he…died saving me.”

“Holy hell. And your dad – you said you’re trying to get answers about why he was killed. You talking with HPD on that? ‘Cause I still know some of ‘em from my short but very unhappy tenure there and…”

“No, I’m kind of going at it through some sources at work,” Steve said. “I have reason to think it wasn’t a robbery like the cops keep insisting.”

“Is that why you signed up with ‘Island Yenta?’” Danny stopped walking. “Did you pick me specifically ‘cause I’m a private investigator?”

“No, I swear,” Steve looked like he knew the question was probably coming. “I left that all to them. I only had one requirement; I needed someone who would stick. Someone who, once they commit … won’t leave me.”

“Well there you go; now it’s adding up,” Danny couldn’t help but smile at the hopeful look in those eyes. “And me? I told them I wanted someone worth committing to. Someone who wouldn’t decide five years in that I'm not enough for them. So what’s next? We go on a couple of dates? Grab dinner, maybe?”

“I was thinking dinner Wednesday at my place,” Steve said. “But that you bring a suitcase and you stay.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know you want to keep your apartment for a while. I get it; you don’t want your daughter to meet me until you’re sure, and that’s understandable, but…”

“What’s the hurry? We’ve got a whole year to see if it works or cancel the contract, so…”

“So…what? Do you want to date or do you want a marriage, Danny? ‘Cause I can do the dating thing if you really want it; get dressed up every Friday night, hit some restaurants, cigar bars, catch a football game….that sound like what you’re looking for?”

“Well, it doesn’t sound….bad, honestly. Does it?”

“No, it doesn’t. But I like the alternative a lot better.”

“Which is, what?”

“I come home to you and you come home to me. We dive right in, head-first.”

The look of determination and abject sincerity on Steve’s face – it wasn’t lost on Danny what it was costing him, taking this chance. He could back out now if it was too much -- get his check returned and try again, but… something told him that’d be his loss, if he did. If they didn’t at least give it a shot.

“I see what I’m dealing with; you’re a smooth mover, huh? You’re kind of a player behind that frown and the wrinkle by the eyebrow, there?”

“I am not, I’m…”

“Yeah, you are. ‘Come see my beach, Danny, come to dinner and hey, maybe stay and we can….’”

“….I’m serious!”

“Yeah, you are,” Danny took a step toward him and gave him a hip check. “You’re very serious, babe. But then, you’ve had a lot to be serious about. Maybe you need someone who can bust through that a little, huh?”

“Is that a yes?” Steve asked. 

“It’s a yes, Steven. I’ll bring some of my stuff along. On our second date. When I move in with you. No, that’s not crazy, not at all….”

“Great. And my place…it’s not huge but there’s a guest room. So if you want, you can stay there and we can take it slow.”

They started walking again; both noting but neither saying out loud how they kept walking up the beach, not ready to turn and go back to their cars yet.

“So what would you have done,” Danny gave Steve a little push on his arm “… if you’d shown up and hated me on sight or something?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have asked you to move in. That’s for sure.”

“When did you decide to?”

Steve turned before he answered, pointing.

“That lifeguard station?”

“Yeah?”

“About ten steps before we got to it.”

“Yeah? Really?”

“Yes,” Steve’s grin returned. “ I told you, I’m …very…”

“Serious. Right. Except, apparently when you’re a goofball. Come here….” 

Danny pulled at his arm this time, reeled him in and Steve dropped in obviously thinking he intended to say something quietly to him. Danny reached in, instead, and kissed him – once, fast and light and pulled back to watch the reaction. 

Shock - Steve looked shocked. The good kind, though. There was a barely audible intake of breath and both a brightening and narrowing of the eyes and then Steve slid a hand along Danny’s back, the other cupping his neck, lips pressing to his two, three times – soft and loose, a bit of light, mutual sucking and tasting going on. It felt like Steve wanted to deepen it, to kiss him harder but he restrained himself, just a hint of teeth nipping Danny’s lower lip as he pulled away again.

“That… was nice. That was a very nice first kiss,” Danny said.

“Nice? On a scale of…”

“Seven of ten.”

“That’s all?”

“Yeah, but I took you by surprise, I know. And the first kiss is overrated anyway.”

“It is? I always thought…the song says….”

“Yeah, yeah, that whole ‘it’s in his kiss’ thing is fine but it’s really hugs that’ll tell you all you need to know about a person. Here, let’s see….”

“This is important, then?” Steve asked as Danny stepped in. “Is it, like, make or break?”

“Could be. Oh…..damn….” Steve’s arms went around him, squeezing and Danny felt almost lifted from his toes. Felt how they fit together, how warm and solid this man was against him, around him. “Oh, wow…”

“Better than a seven?” Steve asked, not moving, not letting go. 

“Twelve at least. Maybe a fifteen.” Danny held on, too. “This is ….yeah. Very, very good.”

Almost too good, part of his brain said. 

The rest of him told that part to shut the hell up.


	3. Date Night - Moving In

“Wow,” Danny shifted the very cold beer from one hand to the other, barely feeling it, eyes not leaving the ocean as they walked down the lawn. “You have a gift for understatement. This… is not 'a view,' it's a world-class view.”

“My parents had good timing,” Steve tapped the first of the Adirondack chairs with his fingers, then walked around it and took the other for himself as they settled in. “They’d never be able to touch this place now.”

It was Wednesday evening and Danny had arrived as agreed, a suitcase heavy with his clothes and day-to-day stuff in tow. He’d looked a little frazzled when he first walked in, like work or maybe something else about his day was still very much on his mind. It kind of took some of the pressure off; Steve thought his own nerves would be singing a little louder if the whole focus were on the two of them, on this moment.

He had joined Danny in the guest room as he was hanging his shirts, and noted how methodically he went about it: Straightening each one on its hanger, tugging out the sleeves, hand slapping away the occasional wrinkle. He’d picked up the picture on Danny’s nightstand, and looked at the little girl in it who was smiling in Danny’s arms. ‘Grace Face,’ Danny had said and nothing more and Steve had nodded.

It was odd, her going from concept to potential step-daughter in a moment, like that. He wondered when he’d meet her, when Danny might be ready for that, and then he let the thought go.

“So what’s your career like?” Danny broached the one big topic they’d only lightly touched on their first date. “The folder was pretty short on info – just said Naval Intelligence, that your rank is commander, and mentioned the potential for some travel and deployment. They wouldn’t send you away for, like, a year or anything, would they?”

“No….” Steve said. It wasn’t a lie, more like a hunch – and preferable to saying ‘anything’s possible.’ “I don’t see that at this point. My team and I…. we’re up to our necks in so many cases….”

“What kind of stuff? Can you tell me or would that be breaking some regulation?”

“I can tell you top line; we monitor this part of the world for maritime activities that could be a threat to the U.S. – like drug smugglers, arms dealers, terrorists….”

“Um… terrorists?” 

“Yeah.”

“Big Bads. Wow. That’s intense. You sure you’ve got time for a life?”

“I’m running out of time to find one. That’s all I know for sure,” Steve said, surprised at the vehemence in his own voice. “Besides, it’s not like when I was in the SEALS and constantly deployed. Once my dad died, it just felt right to stop being on the move so much. And working where I do lets me learn more about the people I think are behind his murder, so…. listen, I hate talking about me. And this isn’t exactly ideal second date fodder, is it? Maybe you could put me out of my misery and tell me what kind of detective work you do?”

“Mostly intel for medium-sized companies. You know; background checks on their hires, looking into data theft issues. I like working for firms that aren’t too small or too big – less red tape, but they still have the bucks to spend. I take cases from individuals, too, and that’s where the whacked out, ‘you can’t make this stuff up’ stuff comes into play. I even do stakeouts on suspected cheating spouses."

“I’ll bet those are way less than fun…” 

“That’s the polite way to put it. Kind of sucks, feeling like a creeper, knowing what these people are going to put each other through once the truth is out. But they pay, I’ll tell you…those jobs pay.” 

“I bet. And you left the HPD because….”

“I hated them, and they hated me. That kind of covers it, really. When you hear ‘you don’t fit in’ enough, you have to listen to it after a while. When you get harassed for wearing a tie, for handling the basics, the sheer _basics_ of investigation and law enforcement the way you believe they should be handled….” “

You don’t back off, do you?” Steve said. “When you feel strongly about something?”

“You could say that,” Danny said, and Steve noted how he flinched. “I’ve been told I’m a hot head. Though I don’t concur. I’ve also been told I tend to run my mouth off, but…. If you don’t speak your mind, how the hell will anyone know where you stand?”

“You don’t seem all that bad so far,” Steve offered. “You strike me as committed. What’s wrong with all that?”

“Yeah, well….the presence of my entire wardrobe and my toothbrush in your house aside it’s still early between us, yet. Let’s see how you like me when you start pissing me off, and vice versa.”

Steve couldn’t not smile around the neck of his beer bottle at that. It felt good – being with someone who couldn’t be bothered to be anything but himself.

It felt hopeful.

~*~

"Wait....ohhh...slow down, maybe..." Danny felt his back and then his ass make contact with the wall in Steve's hallway, then Steve pressing the rest of him to it. ".... let me catch my breath..."

"Dizzy?" Steve asked, lips running along his jaw, head dipping down to sniff and nip at Danny's neck, his ear. "Am I making you dizzy, Danny?"

"I’m revising your grade," Danny let his hands fall from Steve's back to find and squeeze his ass through those jeans. "…from the other day. You get a 98 for this kiss..."

They'd talked so long that it was dark by the time they even fired up the grill. Then there had been much conversation over the fresh fish and veggies - and the bottle of wine they'd split on top of a couple of beers. It wasn’t enough alcohol to leave them feeling drunk, exactly, but...it had loosened some inhibitions. Clearly. There had been bumping while they cleaned up the kitchen; bumping hands and hips, Steve practically leaning into him by the sink as they washed and dried each item one by one. Then, since it was late, Danny had suggested they treat the guest room door as 'his place' and say their goodnights there - like it really was a simple date they were wrapping up. As if they weren't actually, technically, already engaged.

“It would be so easy for me to say ‘let’s go,’ it really would,” Danny said when Steve let him up for air again.

"Why don't you then?" Steve asked it against Danny's neck, lips tracing down, pressing against the bit of his chest not covered by his shirt, a hand finding the first closed button and sliding it open.

"Babe.... you said...we could go slow."

Danny had never had someone step away from him so fast or look so chagrined. Regretful.

"I'm so sorry," Steve's hands left him, going to his own jeans pockets. "You don't want this."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that at all."

"Then why...."

"I don't want us to play house. I agree it makes sense to see how we do together, how we are when we're living in the same space but.... if there's a future for us? If there's a someday, I don't want to tell the story of how we signed some papers and I fell into bed with you because why not?"

"I get it. You want to be sure."

"Not just that. I want a moment. I want to say that there was this moment and that I just knew. That we both knew that magic formula really had made the right match. Do _you_ know, yet? For sure?"

"Of course, not. You're right. I'm sorry, but....just so you know, I am sure about one thing: I'm very attracted to you Danny. And I don't say that to just anybody."

Danny gave him a long look and a nod and then gestured, asking him to drop back in.

"Come here," he got a hand around Steve's neck and held him there, kissed him long and deep and soft - loose jaw and lazy, contented tongue then pulled back just slightly, their mouths still close. "Me too, Steven. And... me either."

"'Night, Danny," Steve was up the stairs in what seemed like a flash - like it was turn and go or else ask again and he'd better go.

""Night, babe."

~*~

Danny lay awake for some time in the guest room. The low roll and break of the ocean waves was something that was going to take some getting used to. Honestly, though, it beat the sound of garbage trucks and late night revelers on the streets like he usually heard from outside of his apartment window.

  
It would be so easy to get up and climb the stairs and tell Steve that maybe it'd be nice to share a bed after all but....it was only their second day together, and they'd only done the easy stuff - walked and talked and enjoyed a meal.

Who knew what would happen now that they'd be sharing the rest of the real world together?

 


	4. An invitation, A bruise, A moment...

“Latest reports are logged,” Kono poked her head in to Steve’s office, waving a stack of paper and a couple of folders full of satellite data printouts. 

“Highlights?” Steve requested, eyes staying on his computer screen.

“The surveillance teams watching that cargo ship off Molokai tailed it all night. They’re picking up what bits of the onboard convo they can - and they got the go ahead to tap their cell phones, so more to come later today.”

“How about the chatter about the potential civilian labor strike here at the ports? Anything new there?”

“Nothing, no. The team gathering intel on that pinged to say they’ll give us a shout when that changes.”

“Great. Anything else I need to know?”

“Nope. Chin’s working through those encrypted DOD files.”

“Got it. Kono…” She’d turned, but heard him asking with his voice for her to stay. “…if you have a moment, can I ask you something that’s not work related?”

“Sure,” she took a few more steps in, walking slowly around to sit in the chair opposite Steve’s desk. She didn’t get a verbal ‘have a seat’ but Steve looked receptive; was shifting in his own chair with an expression she couldn’t read. “What’s up, boss?”

“If…I were to have a …barbeque, um, Saturday, would you want to come over? You know, if….”

“Sure!”

“…if you don’t have anyth… really?”

“Yeah. I’m meeting friends at Pipeline bright and early, but we’ll wrap it up noonish.”

“Do you think Chin….”

“Well, I don’t know. Chin’s pretty picky,” Kono tried to keep a straight face, but she let her smile show a bit when Steve looked embarrassed. “Depends on how good a chef you are. I mean, are we talking hotdogs and Spam or are you breaking out the sirloin?”

“I was thinking sirloin _burgers_ and chicken, actually. Veggie skewers, too, and something for dessert. I could pick up some…”

“Just kidding; I’m thinking Chin will be glad to join us if he hasn’t made plans. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day, too – the trades’ll be back, finally. Did you order them up for your party, boss?”

“You might have to stop calling me boss and go with Steve. At least for Saturday…”

“I don’t know,” Kono shot him a more mischievous look. “This all seems pretty…radical. Inviting us to your house, offering up your first name on a platter. What’s the occasion?”

“There’s… there’s no occasion.”

“Sure, there is,” Kono said archly – reminding Steve with her tone that he was talking with one of his best intelligence agents. “Say it fast, like pulling off a Band-Aid. I swear it won’t hurt too much.”

Steve looked like he was on the verge of actually blushing. Kono tried to keep the surprise off of her face, afraid she might have pushed him too hard – that he would shut down.

“There’s someone I want you both to meet.”

Steve blurted it. Slow talking Steve blurted it.

“Ooooh, a _someone_. Huh. I won’t lie, it’s been wondered out loud more than once.”

“What has?”

“Well… why there isn’t _already_ a someone when……”

“When what?”

“You’re smart and you’re handsome, sir. I don’t think you need to be told, but… well, it’s human nature to wonder. So, what’s her name?”

Here it came; she watched him visibly take a deep breath.

“His name is Danny.”

“Ahhhh,” Kono nodded, seeing the relief on his face that her smile didn’t dim even a little. “So, how long have you known this _Danny_?”

“We met five days ago.”

“Hmmm…. five days and you want us to meet him? Did you do your homework? Did you order a background check?”

“I didn’t…have to. One was done for me.”

“Yikes, I was kidding,” Kono sat forward. “Seriously, sir? A background check?”

“It’s complicated. We didn’t just _meet_. It… it’s an arranged thing.”

“Oh, wow – do you mean Island Yenta?”

“How’d you know?”

“They’re renowned. But expensive. You have to be someone to afford them, like a Navy Commander, maybe. So what does he do?”

“Danny was a cop. Is a private investigator now.”

“That sounds like a good mix; he’ll get it when our work hours are crazy; when you have to haul ass in here at two in the morning once in a while…”

“I know. It was a relief. I wondered when I signed up who they were possibly going to match me with who would both have a career and respect how much I love mine. Someone who could put up with….”

“With your ‘pretty much all business’ personality?” Kono teased, relieved when her daring got her rewarded with the widest smile she’d ever seen out of Steve.

This was turning into quite the morning.

“Yeah, that’s fair. Danny’s jury is still out on how we’ll get along. He wants to go slow.”

“Smart guy. No shocker; you wouldn’t put up with less,” Kono stood to go. “So…does ‘taking it slow’ mean you two haven’t….”

“That’ll be all, Specialist Kalakaua,” Steve went back to his computer screen.

“Yes, sir. That’s what I thought, sir. Pushing it, I was. A little.”

“A lot,” Steve said, but she noticed the corners of his mouth playing up in a hint of a grin.

It was fun, seeing a tough guy like him open up like that.

~*~

Steve walked into his house after work to a combination of heavenly scents; garlic, celery, onion and spices all heating up together in a pot coated in olive oil.

“Wow, what’s going on in here?” He toed his shoes off by the kitchen table and walked up behind Danny at the stove, getting his thumbs through the belt loops on Danny’s slacks and stepping in tight to him.

“Red sauce. Soon, at least, it will be: There will be red sauce going on.”

“Damn. Do you get the urge to cook like this often?”

“I do.”

“Jackpot. I think I might have hit the jackpot.”

“Don’t be too happy. The one who doesn’t cook it gets to clean it…”

“Happily,” Steve said, but he didn’t budge; the piles of onion peel, garlic skins and tomato bits could be swept away, the counter and knives and cutting boards cleaned in a bit. “Is this for dinner?”

“I’ve got a meatloaf in the fridge for dinner. I’m gonna spoon some of this over the pan, then I’ll let the rest simmer. The sauce will be far better once it cooks for a few hours and sits in the fridge overnight.”

“How’d you do all of this so fast?” Steve tilted his wrist to look at his watch. “It’s only six o’clock.”

“I left my office early,” Danny explained. “No cases, right now. I’m in between things. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be a financial drain - it’s the way it goes in my line.”

“I get it,” Steve pressed his lips to Danny’s temple and stepped away to pitch in. “No worries. Hey, I…invited some friends over Saturday. Hope you don’t mind?”

“Friends? You have friends?”

“Stop it. You’re sounding like them, now.”

“Are we doing a barbeque?” He turned to see Steve nod. “Who’s coming over?”

“Two of my employees. They’re not military; most of my office is active duty personnel, but a few are civilian contractors. Kono and her cousin Chin are the best of them - smart, quick on their feet. You’ll like them.”

“I didn’t know civilians were part of the intelligence branch?”

“Yeah, in pretty big numbers. Chin was a cop, too – long before you were with HPD, though. Kono…she’s a piece of work.”

“I’m glad it’s days away,” Danny added a huge bowl of pureed, parboiled tomatoes to the pot. “Gives me time to make a New York style Cheesecake for dessert.”

“Wow,” Steve gave him a high five as Danny discarded the bowl in the sink. “Jackpot. No doubt about it.”

~*~

Saturday found them so prepared, that there was time to surf before their guests arrived.

Or more like surfing lessons; Danny had experience with boogie boards, but the big waves and bigger boards were a challenge. Steve walked him through the right form; how to paddle out, to wait and time a wave. They rode a couple of smaller ones together.

“You’re doing great,” he said, and it wasn’t too big a stretch handing him that compliment; Danny was wobbly, yes, but he’d made it to his feet the first try and rode the second one well. “You’re all over it.”

Which Danny was, until he wasn’t. Somewhere around the sixth wave the board flew up, fell down, and clocked him hard on the forehead over his right eye.

“Crap,” Danny shouted, fumbling, finding the board and getting back on. He lay awkwardly on his side as he felt for blood. “That…really sucked.”

“You okay?” Steve paddled over to him, leaning up to reach with his hand and feel around, too. “You’ve got a pretty good bruise but it looks like it’s closed.”

“Great. Your friends will think you clocked me or something.”

“No… it’s not that bad. C’mon… let’s get in, though. We’ll patch you up.”

~*~

“Stop, don’t… don’t get your hand in the way.”

“Sorry,” Danny looked it in more ways than one, sitting in ‘his’ chair on the lawn, pressing his palms firmly to his thighs over his still-damp swim trunks. “It’s a reflex, you know? When something hurts….you reach.”

“Yeah. But it’s only a styptic pencil; gotta get these edges where it opened up…” 

Steve was crouched in front of him; the alum pencil in his right hand, the fingers of his left on Danny’s forehead near the purple bruise spreading almost by the minute and bleeding slightly across the top.

“Ouch! Fuck…”

“I know. But we need to make sure you don’t get an infection.”

“Who even owns one of those anymore?” Danny nodded at the tool Steve was wielding. 

“Anyone who ever had to shave on a ship that’s getting pushed around by a storm owns one,” Steve explained slowly, patiently, dabbing quick and light as Danny muttered and cursed. “Almost done. There…that’s it. All good.”

Steve would never know what it was; if it was the caretaking Danny wasn’t used to receiving, or the closeness between them after a mishap… but as he stood he saw Danny standing, too, felt him wrapping a hand around his arm.

“Hey,” Danny said - just that, eyes on his, mouth set in a way that asked Steve for a kiss.

He didn’t need another invitation; was wrapped around Danny asap, fighting to keep the kiss gentle and measured. Patient. Sure, Danny was making happy noises deep in his throat, but if Steve misread this? Overstepped?

Three days ago, Danny had wanted to take it slow. This, Steve thought as Danny’s mouth went slack, as Danny’s tongue flicked in hard and stroked along his, was not slow.

“Danny…is this…. um… a moment?” Steve pulled back to ask half a minute later, running a hand over his wet mouth, catching his breath.

“What do you mean, babe?”

“Is it the… sign you’ve been….waiting for?”

“Can’t you tell?”

“Oh, thank God…’cause I’m getting seriously turned on.” 

“How long ‘til your co-workers show up?”

“An hour and a half.”

“Sounds like plenty of time to me….” Danny breathed.

They both got a laugh at how fast they were in the house and up the stairs.

 

~*~

“I’m glad we waited,” Danny said, flat on his back, skin warm and heart still beating a little fast under Steve’s hand. “It made it more… you know, special.”

“Uh…Danny,” Steve took a second to respond, curled on his side, head on a pillow just north of Danny’s, fingers tracing through the sweet fuzz on his chest. “We waited…three days. That was it. Three days.”

“Yeah, but… it was a long three days. Wasn’t it?”

They both snorted and Danny was grinning, a ‘so, sue me - you’re hot’ smile.

“You’re very noisy,” Steve said, getting up on one elbow to lean in and kiss him slow and loose. “When you, uh… you’re very…verbal.”

“That can’t be a total surprise,” Danny said between mouth presses and nips. “You… are not. Very noisy. But the sounds I got out of you… I liked ‘em. So far so good, yes?”

“Better than good,” Steve said. 

It looked to Danny like he was prepared to say more, but then there was the bang of a screen door shutting and…

“Hey, there!” A guy’s voice in the hall. “Commander? Uh..Steve?”

“Maybe they ran to the store,” Danny heard a woman’s voice in the living room, right behind him. 

“Oh, crap,” Danny said, but he was chuckling, scrambling to find his boxers. “I take it they’re early.”

“Maybe I gave them a different time than I… thought,” Steve looked a little more panicked, headed for the door to shut it part way. “It’s possible. I was nervous. I’ve never staged a barbecue, you know? I’ve only gone to them.”

Danny watched him shout down to his team that he’d be right with them and it struck him; how worldly Steve was in some ways; some serious and hardcore, high-risk situation ways. And still, how sweetly, goofily out of his element he could be in others.

“It’s all good,” he snuck up behind him and got arms around him, pressed his face to Steve’s back. “I get that maybe you didn’t want to tell them the whole deal today, or have them catch a clue about this, obviously. So go shower up quick, and get them in the backyard. I’ll come out in a bit - I’ll say I was crashed out in my room, recovering from my head injury.”

“Thanks, Danny,” Steve visibly appreciated the quick plan, and Danny’s not taking it personally.

Danny did wait- didn’t hit the shower until he’d watched them walking the lawn through the upstairs window. They looked so natural together – so easy with each other.

He wondered how he’d fit into their little team?


	5. Two steps forward...

“Steve mentioned you work as a private investigator,” Chin said as he and Danny each took a seat on the chairs scattered over the lawn. “He didn’t say you were into boxing, too. Is that a professional pursuit as well, or a hobby?”

“Ah, here we go…” Danny gave Chin a ‘you had to go there look,’ glancing back at Steve and Kono by the grill just in time to catch them acting like they hadn’t heard the jab. “Thought you might let the shiner go without mention, but…”

“No, of course not,” Chin took a swig of his beer. “What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t watch out for Steve? Make sure he isn’t getting involved with some kind of…ruffian.”

That got an actual laugh out of Kono, and a grin out of Steve as they kept working on the burgers and the veggie skewers.

“Not to worry,” Danny said. “I’m not half the badass this bruise makes me out to be. In fact…it’s Steve’s fault, pretty much.”

“Do explain,” Kono stopped marinating the long enough to chime in. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“He made me try surfing,” Danny said with a shrug, like that should be enough.

“ _Made_ you?” Steve jumped in to defend himself. “You were having a great time. Until… well, until you wiped out in … spectacular fashion.”

“Hey, at least it was spectacular,” Danny waved an arm in his general direction. “I’ll take a memorable fail over a mediocre performance anytime. But after today… I think I may be better off a landlubber.”

“Nope,” Chin gave him a look that said not to fear. “You’re wrong. We’ll get you comfortable with the ocean. Living here you need to, or you miss out on a lot of the fun.”

“Your big mistake was picking this one for your trainer,” Kono ignored the elbow to her arm from Steve. “He’s pretty good … for a haole. But you need real expertise, you know? Especially starting a new sport…at your age.”

“You didn’t,” Danny half collapsed in his chair in mock horror. “you did not say that?”

“Don’t feel bad,” Steve told him. “They wouldn’t pick at you if they didn’t like you.”

~*~

Steve knew it was silly, the way he reverted to being ‘boss man’ the next day – but still, he found himself doing just that; asking Kono the second he got in for her latest reports, launching right into a question he had for Chin before Chin could bring up Saturday.

Not that it mattered, what they thought of Danny. Except…it really did.

“Thanks for having us over this weekend, commander,” Kono finally said after their third check-in on the shipping lanes surveillance. “It was a lot of fun.”

“I’m glad,” Steve managed let go a little and say it as sincerely as he meant it. “I haven’t had that much fun in … a while. A long time, actually.”

Chin was a bit more direct about addressing the topic of Danny.

“Don’t you want some feedback?” He’d asked Steve on their way to interview the local cops about what they’d seen on the docks. 

“About what?”

“Your guy,” Chin said

Steve nodded, settling into the driver’s seat; buckling up and preparing for whatever he might hear. 

“Yeah, okay. So…what … what did you think?”

“He’s all right. You know. But we both kind of wondered if maybe you aren’t aiming low.”

Chin’s words would have stung like hell…if he’d been able to keep a straight face through them.

“You’re screwing with me,” Steve said. “Yes?”

“Hell, yeah. Danny’s sharp, man. Smart, outgoing, not afraid to take a stand. We kind of wondered if maybe you couldn’t find some excuse to hire him. Round out our team.”

“Danny’s pretty independent. And proud of the small business he’s developed. But… I have to say I’m really happy to hear it. That you both got a good impression.”

“We wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true,” Chin had assured him. “You know we’d have your back if we had any doubts.”

~*~

That’s not to say that Steve and Danny didn’t have their own doubts. Their …. issues.

For one thing, there were the arguments. Okay, mostly there were the arguments. In the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, Danny’s car, Steve’s truck, the grocery store, the hardware store, the surf shop where Steve got his gear. Pretty much everywhere they were…there were arguments. Over everything. What to have for breakfast, for dinner, what to do on the weekend, which way to turn at the stoplight. 

It wasn’t lost on either of them that if you could come up with a topic, they could disagree about it. Loudly. For the most part, Steve found he really …liked it, as masochistic as that might sound. Their sparring felt natural and invigorating, except when it got a little too close to the bone as it sometimes did, and then…it hurt. Like nothing he’d been through in along time.

“Do you ever wonder…” Steve asked one evening, while they were washing up after dinner. “if maybe…the agency screwed up?”

“Yeah,” Danny had said immediately, and didn’t that make Steve’s heart fall into his shoes? “But …they didn’t.”

“How do you know?” Steve had asked, handing him a freshly rinsed plate to dry. 

“Because I either come home from work or I wake up and I see you there and…every time, I know they didn’t.”

That had been a good night. Especially when they got the kitchen squared away and Steve dragged Danny immediately up the stairs and into bed. 

 

~*~

They veered between their ups and downs like that for weeks. Until the day when Danny came home actually, physically wounded from his P.I. job and Steve…snapped.

“I’ve told you a dozen times, it’s no good Danny. You go into these cases with no backup.”

“Excuse me? Are you … _seriously_ going with that argument? I know your team, Steve. We all have drinks together on Fridays and they tell me stories. I know you go in without backup all the _frigging time_.”

“Yeah, but I don’t come home with multiple stab wounds…”

“Two. Not multiple. Two, small stab wounds and … they’re fine. I’m fine. Stuff like this...it almost never happens, really.”

“You’re dialing it down, Danny,” Steve got up over him a little. “Your job. You’re taking the corporate stuff and less of the risky stuff: Dialing it down now or…”

“Or what?” Danny might not have the height advantage, but he was right back in Steve’s face. “You going all ‘man of the house’ on me?”

“No… I ..I’m not…” Steve knew enough to take a couple of steps back, then. “But I mean it. I’m not happy with the risks you’re taking. I can’t lose you, Danny.”

“Well, at this rate, you might.”

Danny had left the house abruptly. 

Steve ate dinner alone, and watched some TV. Crashed. Woke up alone. 

Danny didn’t come back the next morning, either… so he went to work. He spent as much time as possible in his office. And tried not to wonder if he’d lost him.

~*~

“Babe…” Danny’s voice, out of nowhere – him standing at the kitchen entranceway on Saturday morning. “What the hell?”

Steve felt himself frowning. Blushing a little. He must look ridiculous; flour all over the counters, half way up to his elbows, the scent of burning apples in the stove perfuming the air in not a good way from the two unfortunate pies that had overflowed, sunk like battleships, and leaked all over the oven. 

Not that they’d all been failures; one successful effort was currently cooling on the counter, and one was in progress between his dough-covered hands, so…

“I’m baking,” Steve said, pulling together as much of his dignity as he could. “It’s stress relief.”

He didn’t say out loud that he needed stress relief that didn’t involve a bottle of beer or several shots of liquor, but it was implied in his tone.

“Okay, if you say so. Last thing I thought I’d ever see you doing, but…”

Danny let the thought fizzle out there.

“My mom… loved baking pies. When I was a kid. I would help her. I got good at it, not that you can tell from today’s output, but… I thought if… you came back and it felt like home… if it smelled like home, maybe you’d..stay. That’s all. I figured if you were coming back ever it would be today and if I tried a little… maybe you wouldn’t go again.”

Steve had more to say about it, but suddenly he noticed Danny wasn’t alone. There was something tiny and….squiggly dancing around Danny’s legs, glued to him but jittery at the testy conversation between them. At first it read to his busy eyes and brain kind of like a puppy but it was, now, clearly a child.

A little girl now half hiding behind Danny, one leery eye on Steve.

“We made pies in home economics,” the girl who was not a puppy, said. “I did okay. If you put too much sugar in them, that will make them spill over. Maybe I could help.”

“You think?” Steve asked her, gesturing at the bowls and tins in front of him. The apple slices and nutmeg and cinnamon and …yes, a lot of sugar. “I didn’t want to go too light and have them end up bitter.”

“Let me see….” She pulled up a chair and was all over it, perusing the situation, reallocating the apple slices to the last tin with dough waiting for some filling as Danny walked up behind her. “This should work….”

Steve locked eyes with him behind her head.

“Steven, this is Grace…” Danny said. “My daughter.”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “I figured. I didn’t _think_ ….”

_That I’d ever meet her? That I’d see you again? What the hell, Danny?_

“Well, I _did_ think…” Danny said, one hand going to Grace’s shoulders as she kept at her task, his other hand going to the back of Steve’s head. “And I thought… it’s time you two meet. I hope… I hope that’s okay.”

Steve couldn’t answer with actual words; didn’t trust that his voice wouldn’t break into a thousand pieces. He nodded instead, his head pushing back into Danny’s hand to better feel it touching him, his eyes closing. 

The way Danny dug his fingers in and massaged his scalp, how he reached over to plant a quick kiss said all that was left to discuss.

Grace stayed in Mary’s room for the first time that night, and the two of them had to keep what went on after she crashed very…very quiet. Which wasn’t easy. But they managed. 

~*~

“Hey, gorgeous… I brought home sushi,” Danny said on his way in the front door, showing off the two bags in his hands. “How great does that sound, huh? Got the spicy soup with the scallops and the vermicelli, too…”

It had been a long week and they were both getting home late from work. It was well past dark. It was also too dark in the room; just the one light on in the kitchen, Steve sitting on the sofa in the dark with the phone in his hand.

“That’s good, babe,” Steve said. “Sounds good.”

“What’s the matter?” Danny stopped heading for the kitchen, turning back to him and setting the food on the coffee table. “You okay? Is it work? Are you sick?”

Steve looked …off. The more distant and down version of himself that made an appearance out of nowhere every so often but also a little…grey. Like he’d had a shock.

“It’s the agency,” Steve reached over to the side table and pressed the voicemail ‘play’ button. “Island Yenta…they called for us about four hours ago.”

Danny felt so confused, now, that he only caught every few words. But they were enough.

_Please contact … immediately….appreciate it if you would … set up an appointment …come in….imperative to see you in person….tomorrow would be best…_

“It’s nothing, I’m sure,” Danny left the bags where they were and resumed heading for the kitchen. “Let’s eat out here, okay? I’ll get bowls, plates… come grab us some waters.”

“Nothing?” Steve didn’t move. “Danny, If it’s nothing, then why do they want us to go to them?”

“Steven,” Danny kept his voice low, his tone patient. “You are _not_ going to lie awake all night obsessing about this. Whatever it is… it’s for us to deal with _tomorrow_. Tonight there will be dinner and we’ll watch something on TV, stream a movie, maybe, and you will sleep.”

It landed with him, apparently; Danny watched Steve nod and get up, headed his way, arm sliding around Danny as they walked to the kitchen together. 

But the look on Steve’s face? 

It was going to be a long night.


	6. All too human...

“You awake?” Steve asked, his voice heavy and extra-raspy with sleep and Danny smiled.

He had come to love that rasp.

“Yeah, I have been for a while. It’s still dark out; you should let yourself drift back off. You were tossing a lot…”

“Sorry. Hope I didn’t…” Steve shifted to get an arm under him and Danny burrowed in, gladly.

“It didn’t bother me too much.”

“Think I’ll get up and go for a swim,” Steve said, but Danny leaned up in the dark to lay a little more over his shoulder and stop him.

“No, not now, okay?”

“No?”

“Stay here. Relax and just…lie there,” Danny reached an arm over him, too, fingers tracing along Steve’s skin as extra incentive. “Haven’t you ever woken up and taken an hour to stay in bed and not have to rush off for work or…”

“God, no. I don’t think I’ve done that since…maybe since I was ten.”

“Well, give it a try. It’s good for you; it’s like a kind of meditation. People are supposed to unplug once in a while, you know.”

Steve didn’t express an opinion on that, but Danny felt him sink into the bed as if he were giving it a shot. Still, there was that nervous bit of something thrumming through Steve that always seemed to be there. The boy was wound tight.

“Danny,” Steve said after about maybe a minute and a half.

“Hmmmm?”

“Are you sure you don’t want to, umm…maybe spend the time screwing?”

“Why do you ask?”

“’Cause I can feel you against my hip and….”

“We don’t have to fuck every single time one of us….”

“We …could though. Couldn’t we? I mean if you want to….”

“You’ll do anything to be constantly in motion, won’t you? Yeah, we could. C’mon,” Danny launched himself up over Steve, tugging at Steve’s sleep shorts. “Drop ‘em, soldier.”

“Sailor,” Steve said, those huge, long arms going around him as Danny lost his boxers and dropped down, pressing them together chest to thighs to knees, every inch a pleasure of its own as they started rocking slowly.

Danny got to hear that rasp again, with a side of extra throaty moan when Steve lost it. Then they both managed to fall back asleep where they landed, tangled. And even though they nearly were late for work in the end, time was made by them both for a long, hot shower and breakfast at the table.

“Hey,” Steve tugged at Danny’s shirtsleeve as they were walking to their cars in the already hot Hawaii morning, and Danny stopped to collect a quick kiss from him. “This…was a great start to the day Danny. You know? For an average, everyday morning, it’s the best I’ve had in… a really long time.”

“Thanks, gorgeous,” Danny threw him a wink and got going. “I’ll call them from my office and get us an appointment. See you there around lunchtime; now go to work and don’t worry, okay?”

Steve gave a firm nod that said he’d do his best, but Danny knew it would be a long few hours for them both – and they could only hope it was nothing big. Maybe a check had bounced? Or they wanted to ask how things were going? That was probably it.

It was probably nothing.

 

~*~

“What do you mean, you made a mistake?” Danny tried not to bark it at the guy, but mostly failed.

He could feel Steve slumping a bit in the chair next to his, but he didn’t actually see it; he was too busy staring bullets through the forehead of the Island Yenta representative sitting at the desk across from them. 

“As I’ve told you both, sir, we are all so sorry about this…unfortunate situation.” 

The guy really looked it; like, shook to the core sorry to have to tell them. Too bad it didn’t help a damn bit.

“The reason we came to you…” Danny said, marginally more calmly, “…was to make sure we didn’t make a mistake…”

“If you review our agreement, Mr. Williams, you’ll see that we’re very clear that only forty percent of the couples we match end up married,” he pointed out in a totally logical but also infuriating way. 

“That’s not what this is about, though, is it?” Danny heard Steve pipe in, his voice low and …so defeated that Danny cringed inside. “This is different. You don’t usually, actually make the worst recommendation possible?”

“No, we don’t,” the rep said, acknowledging the hurt in Steve’s voice with his own solemn tone. “We always do a test run, one that is never meant to reach the client. In it, we purposely mismatch them with someone in order to get a read on our algorithm; to establish that it does point out the mismatch as, well, what it is: A mistake. But this time…”

He talked through it for them again, seeming to get that they were in a bit of shock and probably needed to hear it once more to believe him; how the technician handling their case had done the purposeful mismatch that resulted in their names being paired and then, instead of discarding that trial run, sent each other their names and bios.

Steve and Danny? The algorithm considered them as wrong as it got.

“So did you never come up with matches for us?” Danny asked when the silence got so long and heavy that someone had to say something. 

“We did. That would be the other …complication,” the rep said – turning paler, if that was possible. “Those are the results we should have given you, but…failed to.”

“And?” Steve asked.

“And this folder belongs to you, commander,” the guy handed Steve a sealed envelope, one that looked exactly, precisely like the envelope they’d each opened a few weeks ago with high hopes and dancing hearts. 

There were no hearts dancing right now. And for Danny, apparently….

“No envelope?” he asked it like the guy had just launched a boot at his other, as to this point un-kicked testicle. “You have no envelope for me?”

“It doesn’t mean you’ll never find a relationship,” the guy said, and Danny was right back to wanting to deck him. “It means there’s no definitive match for you. It suggests you’ll have to work much harder than most people to … find someone.”

“Oh…my God,” Danny couldn’t look at either of them – not Steve, not this screw up with a formula for happiness that said he, maybe, wouldn’t find it ever.

“I understand you’re upset, and as I mentioned our company is prepared to go well beyond refunding your money. We’d like to ask that you give our settlement offer a day or two of consideration. We’re willing to negotiate – because this wasn’t a failure of our formula. It was simply… an all too human mistake.”

~*~

“Don’t you dare tear that up,” Danny gritted the words out. “Open it.”

They were sitting across from each other at the picnic table where they’d first met, having a lunch neither of them felt like eating. Steve had picked up the envelope in a way that suggested he was going to pull it apart and shred it barehanded.

“Don’t want to,” Steve said. “I don’t need to look at what’s in there.”

“Yeah, you do. We’re talking decades of your life, Steven. The _rest_ of it not knowing whose name was in there. So, yes, you’re going to open it.”

Danny wasn’t sure which was crueler of fate; arranging that there be no envelope for him, or forcing him to convince the man he’d come to care about deeply that he should peel the frigging thing open. He chose to get up and take a bit of a stroll around the beach, at that point, so he wouldn’t have to watch Steve actually read the words printed on it. 

When he came back…

The look on Steve’s face?

“You know him, don’t you?” Danny asked.

“Not a him,” Steve said. “A her. Yes, I do.”

“You’ve got to tell her.” Danny said.

“I know.”

It was hard to take heart in how unhappy Steve looked and sounded. Danny wanted to think maybe it was a good sign, but with everything that had happened today? 

Steve was probably just simply feeling as deeply, sadly worked over as he was.


	7. The Warriors

“Hi,” she said. “You must be Danny.”

“Well, I’m not selling bibles door to door and I’m not here to check the electric meter so…yeah, I’m Danny. Here to get my stuff.”

He didn’t mean to sound snide. It just… _irked_ , it really did; her tone, so dismissive and flat and the bland look on her face like he was some delivery guy dropping by, someone who had nothing much at all to do with Steve. 

Danny had never been much for girls with that nasal thing going on in their voices. Or toothpick arms. Let alone both. He tried not to picture those arms around Steve, but now it was all his brain could focus on one hundred and fifty percent.

“I have to leave in an hour for a meeting,” Catherine walked toward the guest room that still housed most of the things he’d brought over when he moved in. “Can you be done in about forty?”

“What? You can’t go and leave me to it?” Danny flipped the suitcase in his hand onto the bed and tugged the zipper open none too gently. “It’s not like I’m going to steal the silverware or anything…”

“No, of course you’re not,” She said it like that wasn’t the point, really. “But if we can leave together…it’s probably best, yeah? Then you won’t be on the hook if you forget to set the security alarm or something.”

That’s how this was going to go: Ms. _‘He’s Mine Now’_ wasn’t giving him a bit of breathing room; no last look around, on his own. He didn’t realize until right now that he’d been kind of hoping for that.

“I’m sure I can be done PDQ,” Danny said, heading for the closet to fold his shirts, first. “Not like I brought all my non-existent finery; my dinner party regalia or my fancy work-function tuxedos. I’ll be packed in a trice.”

“Funny you should say that,” she was standing in the doorway, one fist on her hip and the other hand on the doorjamb. Danny almost laughed; it looked so much like a preparatory fighting stance. “Since that’s what Steve needs most. Someone who does the whole dinner party, work function, ‘charm his superiors and make them want to promote him’ thing. Someone to help manage his career, you know? Pave his way.”

“Pave? What, like the Yellow Brick Road?” Danny quipped, hoping to take the air out of what felt like an absurdly political speech from someone who seemed to have already garnered a huge lead in the race. “Does Steve know he’s Dorothy in this scenario? And you, I must say, will make an absolutely _wonderful_ Wick….”

“Laugh it up, but it’s not a game,” she said. “You know Steve has potential to go way up in his department, but he doesn’t have the social skills. Someone like me? The impact I could have on his career, his income potential? It could be a seven figure difference.”

“I guess that makes you a million dollar girl,” Danny said, moving on to his trousers, folding them, too. “And yet, he went looking, didn’t he? He got expert advice…”

“Not so very expert. Apparently. They practically sent him away from the one person who can do him the most good.” 

Check. 

Except, she still sounded too edgy. A tad desperate, for someone who’d been inside to open the door for him. To wait around to show him said door.

“It’s funny; detective skills…they’re so useful.” Danny took the conversation on a hard left turn. “You know what mine tell me? You ditched him some time back, ‘cause you had something more appealing on your hook. But that fell apart, not long before he called to tell you about the matchmaker thing. So now he’s looking like a shiny, new penny.”

The way her smile froze but her eyes narrowed microscopically?

Checkmate.

“He’ll barely remember you,” she said, walking away toward the living room. “By the time we get married? You’ll be a speed bump way the hell back there somewhere.”

Danny packed faster than he ever had before, ever in his life. Not because he wanted to leave but because he’d never been so tempted to get up in a woman’s face ‘til now.

~*~

It had sucked, Steve agreeing when Danny offered after a few stressful days for them both that maybe they should revert to living in their own places again. Steve hadn’t said it was over; clearly hadn’t wanted to put a hard line on anything without letting some time pass. Which made sense. But it couldn’t be a good sign, could it? Her being the one waiting for him the day he packed, Steve only telling him last minute via a text message saying he had to go to Maui for some unexpected work meeting. 

Danny was leaving his key today. She clearly had one. And he hadn’t realized until this second how remote the chances of he and Steve working out now looked. 

“You know I can’t tell him what you said to me,” Danny told her as he left. “About me being a speed bump? ‘Cause that it’ll make me look bad, if I do, like I’m putting a girl on the spot.”

“Tell him whatever you’d like,” she’d said, locking up and reaching in her pocket for her keys, headed for her car. “I’ll tell him ‘hell yeah, that’s what I said…and I meant it.’”

“Well there you go, then,” Danny said.

And then, mostly because she didn’t want him to, he stayed for a while after she left and walked down to the beach to stare at the water and count to a thousand.

~*~

“Thanks for flyin,’” Chin grabbed the Fire Rock ale Steve set in front of him, watching Kono collect hers and give them both a beer bottle salute.

“Thanks for buyin,’” Steve settled back into their table at the Moana’s beachside bar. “Next round’s on me.”

It was nice to have them all together again; the first Aloha Friday Pau Hana they’d been able to organize in almost a month. Kono couldn’t come one week due to bridesmaid duty, and Chin had high school friends in from the mainland another. Now they were together, along with a handful of colleagues from HPD and the state government offices a few floors above their HQ.

“Catherine joining us?” Chin asked, trying to keep any weight out of the words but he knew Steve heard it, that hint of ‘and why not, if she isn’t?’

“No. She …uh… had something tonight. Mandatory work social thing, it sounded like…” Steve let the thought trail off.

Say what he would, they’d all noted her lack of interest in hanging with the gang any longer than a half hour at a time.

“Steve, can I ask you something?” Chin said after a lull in the conversation, just the two of htem with Kono absorbed with their colleagues on the other side of the table.

How mad could Steve get, over a well-intentioned question?

“Sure, buddy. You know you can.”

“Are you… happy?”

“What? I don’t…. I guess I don’t think so much in terms of ‘happy,’” Steve said, spinning his beer bottle in a circle. He was obviously aiming to sound casual, but Chin could see a hint of pink rising on his cheekbones. “Everything’s …fine, though. You know? Just… trying to _be_ for a while. Get up, go to work, make dinner. Normal life.”

“Mmmm. Yeah. I get you,” Chin said. “Except….”

“What?”

“For a while? You _seemed_ …really happy. A few weeks ago, you visibly were. Now? Not so much.”

“Look, Danny and I had dinner last night. We’re going to the Warriors game Saturday. It’s not like I’m closing a door, Chin, I …can’t. Close either door. Not right now.”

“But you’ll have to eventually,” Chin said. “Won’t you?”

“Geez,” Steve said it heavy, like he’d been working so hard not to think about that. “Yeah. It’s just…so tough.”

“Why is it tough?” Chin tried not to imply with his voice that it really shouldn’t be – that one choice should stand clear as the way to go.

“Think about it,” Steve peeled at his beer label. “A formula that doesn’t know any one of us personally says she is ‘it’ for me; my meant to be. And that’s why I got into this whole thing in the first place, to try to avoid a mistake. So…she’s _it_ , right?”

“Okay,” Chin said. “Except…what?”

“The thought of never seeing Danny again? Chin, that’s not a good thought.”

He opted to stick with a nod back at Steve, and silence. Maybe the slight push he’d given would be enough to make him see it – soon if not right now: How simple this really looked, from the outside.

If you were the one whose future wasn’t at stake, of course.

~*~

“Come to papa…” Danny reached for the cardboard box Steve was handing him; the hotdog with extra sauerkraut and mustard, and a tall plastic cup of beer inside it. “Now we’re at a football game.”

“I can’t believe you want that…over this,” Steve sat, hands gesturing at the box full of Asian tofu salad and pineapple coleslaw in his lap. “This… is ambrosia. And perfect for a day game.”

“To each his own, babe,” Danny said as best he could with a mouth full of yummy goodness. “To each his own.”

Steve had shown up for their date kind of early; a good two hours. He hadn’t had much to say about why – no deep discussion of where things were, just some back and forth about their jobs. He’d asked Danny about his caseload, and sounded genuinely happy that business was booming now.

Steve had dropped in some hellos from Chin and Kono, and how they all hoped he’d join them next Friday. Except, that was iffy, wasn’t it? Joining them? Not knowing if it…. if she’d be there?

“You coming to Grace’s birthday party next week?” Danny asked now, between contented bites in the happy silence with them both chowing down.

“Absolutely,” Steve said. “I picked up her present already. Kono helped me choose it.”

“Smart move, babe.”

“Yeah, I think she’ll like it. I’m glad I asked, ‘cause I’d never have figured it out myself.”

“Hell, I have to ask my ex for tips half the time on this stuff,” Danny said. “Don’t feel bad.”

~*~

“What are you thinking?” Danny asked, the two of them standing by his front door and him flipping his keys around in one hand.

“What?” Steve said. “I’m not thinking anything in particular.”

“Yeah, you are. I can hear the gears grinding.”

They’d had a great time at the game; good food, two beers, comfortable silence punctuated by occasional unforced conversation. It felt…. right. Like them, again, as if nothing had come between them.

That’s what Steve had been thinking.

“I don’t know,” he said, instead of the truth. “It’s been a long week and …stressful, so… I was mostly only thinking how much fun this was in contrast. It was fun, wasn’t it?”

“Absolutely,” Danny said. “I will remember today fondly. Wanna come in? You know, for a bit?”

“Danny, I do but… I don’t want to mislead you. I don’t want you to think if I come in and I stay a while and we get naked that, you know, it means anything. Anything beyond the fact that… I’d really like to mess around with you right now.”

“Here’s the thing,” Danny lifted up on his toes to say it by Steve’s ear, soft and low with an extra bit of _‘c’mon sailor, let’s see what you’ve got’_ in it. “I’m fine with that.”

“Key,” Steve nodded at Danny’s hand. “Door. Inside. Now, all right?”

“Sir, yes sir,” Danny mock-barked.

It was, easily, the best screwing around they’d done to date; slow, with intense focus and an awareness of each other deeply enjoying it. Steve was braver about taking the lead and going at it a little rougher; running things, putting Danny how he wanted him; louder while they went at it and _much_ louder when he lost it.

Of course, Danny thought the next day, that was sometimes an indication of ‘end of the affair’ sex, wasn’t it? As in go at it a bit harder while you’re can – before it’s gone.

Then he thought of not seeing Steve again, and of the look on her face when she’d shut and locked that front door and left him to take his stuff home.

And he knew one thing for sure; this was so not over.


	8. The Theory

“Woah, woah, not yet....” Danny stopped rinsing out the prep bowls and grabbed a towel, nodding at the trays full of savory goodies on his kitchen table. “I still gotta put the bruschetta on there.”

“Danny, this is something…” Chin set the huge cherry wood platter back down, waiting as the host topped off this latest round of Hawaiian and Italian delicacies headed for the back yard. “You didn’t only outdo yourself; you outdid all the kiddie parties I’ve ever seen.”

And this was just round three of five, of the food for the grownups; there had also been the birthday cake and cupcakes, veggie platters and little bags of candy for each kid, too.

“Yeah, well,” Danny finished his arranging, and shrugged. “I’m hoping it’ll help Gracie out. A couple of her teachers came and they brought family and…that’s a good sign, isn’t it? It’s been tough for her, being new and being haole.”

“It’s a great sign,” Chin said, picking up the tray again, heading for the door. “After they nosh on mascarpone and tiramisu? It can only make an indelible impression.”

Danny’s back yard looked like the county fair: there was some kind of huge lawn game out by the far fence for the little kids to chase each other on, and an oversized bounce tent the tweens were having a blast with. As they went back out, he heard Gracie right in the middle of it; she and her besties screeching like banshees. 

All around the edges, her friends’ parents, aunties, and uncles sat sipping iced tea and punch, chatting. There had to be thirty-five people, and Chin was impressed to see he’d made that many connections while being a busy single dad and new here himself.

“Oh, wow, look at that….” Danny heard Steve as they set the food on the picnic table. “May I?”

“Of course, buddy,” Danny ignored the fact of Catherine draped not only over Steve’s arm but also over his entire left side. “Dig in. That’s what it’s there for….”

“Wow….” Steve said, making happy, happy food sounds; not just brief ones, but long, contented _‘mmmmmmssss’_ and didn’t it go to Danny’s dick like a river to the ocean? “….sooo good, Danny. Seriously…. _soooo_ good.”

“Take a breath, hon,” Catherine said, an attempt at a quip from the tone of voice. “You’d think you’d never had a cannoli before. Am I right?”

Danny, somehow, hand to heaven actually managed to give her a thin laugh of…not support. What? Commiseration, maybe, at the awkwardness of it all, and the way no one else chuckled.

He’d been less than happy when Steve didn’t show up alone, but as the day had gone on he’d decided it hadn’t been Steve’s first choice; she’d clearly insisted.

“I’m impressed, Danny,” Kono jumped in, blessedly diverting attention. “I had no idea you were such an amazing cook – and a baker, too.”

“If I am good, my grandma gets the credit,” he said, heading back inside. “But she’d be glad to hear that you enjoyed it, I’m sure.”

~*~

The party went well into the late afternoon. Danny lost all track of time, running between the kitchen and the lawn and trying to talk with everyone for at least a little while.

He was coming out with the last of the desserts in his hands when he saw it: Catherine and Steve shaking hands with the people they’d met, giving Kono and Chin a hug goodbye.

As much as he’d tried to keep his expectations in check, his heart still fell; he realized how much he’d hoped there would be some time to talk with Steve, to at least get a sense of how he was doing since their football date ten days ago. But now they were leaving, and he was, apparently, not on Steve’s mind much at all.

Except, maybe he was. Danny watched Steve seek out Gracie, Steve dropping down to a crouch and putting his arms out for her. Grace ran and jumped into his arms, grinning.

Yes, the _Disney Frozen Sing-a-long Elsa_ Steve had given her was a highly sought after present, but …that? That wasn’t about a gift. It was the kind of hug reserved for someone you’re plain happy to have with you on your big day.

Danny watched Steve return the sentiment; the way he tugged Grace in an extra bit tighter and planted a kiss on her forehead. He said something to her, a ‘see you soon, kiddo’ kind of thing and ruffled her hair. 

Danny chose to turn, right then, and hike it back to his kitchen; to digest the moment alone.

~*~

“It’s funny, I don’t get ‘club rat’ from you at all,” Danny said, eyes running up and down Steve. “But you fit here, babe. You look damn fine and very, very…chill.”

It was the Thursday after the party; their first actual night out on the town ever. And for a brief, shining moment, at least – he had Steve to himself.

“Thanks, I guess,” Steve looked vaguely embarrassed but slid closer, arm going around Danny, flashing him a smile with some heat in it. “You enjoying it?”

“Yeah, surprisingly….I really am.”

It wasn’t an overstated compliment he’d given. The place was pretty amazing, and Steve had dressed up for him; Hugo Boss suit pants and a soft black shirt unbuttoned exactly so. Plus, he smelled like frigging heaven, with a hint of sandalwood and ginger on top.

Danny had wanted to jump him from the minute he got in Steve’s car for the ride to Morimoto’s.

Dinner there had been delish, and then, to Danny’s surprise, Steve had taken them to Lewer’s Lounge. It had an old school and yet hip feel; dark room, lots of wood on the walls, and live jazz. They had the perfect booth for watching the crowd and the band, and it was all very nice except…

Well, Danny couldn’t miss that he’d been bumped down to “Thursday Night” status. Hadn’t he? Steve had been studiously careful, too, about keeping the conversation light – lots of questions about Danny’s cases, how Grace enjoyed her party. Zip about Steve. About how he was doing. Zilch.

“You’re closer, aren’t you?” Danny blurted it as the band wrapped up their number and the crowd applauded. “Closer to deciding. And I’m losing.”

“It’s not a game, Danny,” Steve said, but he looked immediately uncomfortable. “There’s no win and no lose, here.”

“Sure there is.”

“Listen, no matter what happens, you don’t have to lose me. You would still want to be friends, wouldn’t you? If….”

“Of course,” Danny said, but he found himself pulling away, microscopically, shifting and finding his own space within the booth. “It’s hard, though, isn’t it? It’s hard, in the best circumstances, to pull that off.”

“Yeah, it is. All of this is hard.”

“Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why should it be so damn hard, Steven? Yeah, so a secret sauce formula that’s worked for hundreds of other people says you belong with her but…what does your own damn _head_ say?”

“My head… has been seriously messed up since…”

“What does your _heart_ say?”

“That I’ll probably end up alone,” Steve said. “No matter how I… either one of you… you’ll probably tire of me - leave me, eventually.”

The band was still right there, playing. There was crowd noise, too, but to Danny’s ears they all retreated like a wave going back out to sea and the room? It went dead silent.

“Oh babe,” Danny said. “That is a whole other level of messed up than we have even begun to peel apart. Isn’t it?”

He had more thoughts on that matter, but suddenly Steve was up and standing, looking around like he couldn’t believe what had come out of his own mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Steve was shifting, reaching around in his pockets with his eyes on the floor. “Maybe….I’d better go.”

It was his car keys he’d been fishing for, and having found them Steve was gone. So fast, Danny didn’t have time to recover from his shock let alone keep up with his retreating form in the increasingly crowded club.

“Hey!” He shouted once he was outside, waving until the taillights of Steve’s car disappeared. “Stop…you ….maniac! Steve, stop! You drove for cripe’s sake….”

He guessed that Steve would probably figure that out somewhere about halfway home. 

Danny could wait for him, but at this point, a cab and some distance seemed wise.

~*~

He would remember the next morning for a very long time; how weird it had felt, waking up and remembering the aborted evening out. How strange, too, that Steve had never called to apologize.

He kind of wished he had some fieldwork to do today. Scoping out the lowest of unfaithful spouses in some ratty neighborhood would be preferable to what he actually had on his plate; get showered, dressed, and go sit still and make phone calls from his office. Drumming up business like it was any other Friday.

“Good morning,” he said it almost automatically when his office door opened right around ten a.m. “How can I help….”

“Please don’t tell me to go,” Steve said.

“Oh, never mind,” Danny said as dry as he had it in him to be. “I _can’t_ help you. I’m not sure _anyone_ can help you. Except, perhaps, my good friend _Doctor Sally Jesse WhattheHellisWrongwithYou?’_ ”

“I am so sorry.”

“You are, babe. Sorry. But, really… that’s not fair, is it? You’re probably no worse a mess than I am; I was so angry after my divorce, so royally pissed off at the world. I can’t imagine how much worse I would be if everyone I ever knew left me in one way or the other. My friends, my family…”

“I have a theory,” Steve said, pacing. Almost like he hadn’t heard a kind word Danny said in spite of it all. “You have to hear it.”

“Um… okay. Sit down, maybe, first? I think you need to do that, and take a deep breath.”

“No, don’t…. just… listen. What if the algorithm has a will of its own?”

“Um, Steven, an algorithm is made of math.”

“Yes, it is. Know what else is made of math? The whole universe; at least some scientists, they’re pretty sure about that: Everything -- the stars, planets, plants, people. All made of math. So what if the algorithm…has a mind of its own, and it set us up? Arranged it so the mistake happened; that I got the envelope with your name and you got one with mine?”

“Okay, let’s ignore the big metaphysical jump in logic required here,” Danny said. “Why do you think it _would_ do that, even if it _could_? If she’s supposed to be your girl, why would it do that?”

“Because in all the time I’ve known her she never, ever has felt like it,” Steve said. “Like mine. I mean… a friend? Yes. But mine forever? Danny, you said the other day that I was close to deciding, and I was; I’d realized how much you mean to me already – so fast. But I still couldn’t get around it, you know, the formula saying otherwise. Then it hit me…”

“What….” Danny felt a small wave of indignation run through him. “That I’m your ‘Hail Mary’ pass? A last second save of the rest of your life?”

“Maybe,” Steve said. “And maybe I’m yours. It could really be that simple.”

“Except…” Danny said. “In my experience? Nothing’s ever that simple.”

For a second he thought Steve was deeply disappointed in his response - maybe was about to turn and go as quickly as he had last night. Then, Steve tugged him by the arm toward the chairs by his desk and he realized…oh, no…Steve was very much on a mission.

“Look,” Steve sat in one of the chairs, urging him into the other. “I know I’m downloading a lot of information in a few words, but I think you know me well enough to know I’m not crazy. I’ve thought about it every way there is to think about it and…”

“Oh, woah, wait…” Danny panicked as Steve lifted up and pulled something out of the pocket of his cargoes; a small box. Black. Velvet-covered. “Slow down, okay? Think about what you’re…doing. There is no need to ….rush _anything_ , here....”

“It all comes down to one thing,” Steve popped it open. “one question.”

“Holy….”

A rose gold band was inside, with four black diamonds across the front. Classy. Masculine. Eighteen carats of gold, and a couple in diamonds, easily. 

“Danny, will you marry me?”

“Steven… holy crap….” 

Danny looked down at his much dustier than he remembered it being office floor and shook his head; then looked up into eyes that were visibly stripped of everything but hope and love and genuine need and _there _he was dammit; the guy he’d gotten to know all these months.__

__There was his Steve, looking like he hadn’t since the day they’d gotten the bad news._ _

__Danny drew a deep breath - and then he said the first word that demanded its way out of his mouth…_ _


	9. The Hidden Variable

“Animal!” Danny said.

“Am not.”

“Yeah, you are. You popped a button off of my shirt. See? It’s on the floor…”

“Sorry,” Steve didn’t bother to look. He was too busy tugging said shirt over Danny’s shoulders, helping him shake it off then giving in to the urge to run hands over that back, those hips, Danny’s pants half off of them already. “Got carried away, thinking about later. I’m gonna push you all over the bed, Danny; the _sheets’ll_ be on the floor by the time I’m done with you.”

“Okay, seriously: We have guests - dozens of them, in fact, waiting for us downstairs,” Danny was now kicking his tuxedo trousers off. “And if you don’t stop it…they’re gonna have to wait another ten minutes, at least, while I stand in the shower with the cold running….”

“All right, all _right_.” Steve sounded like he was talking to himself as much as Danny. He slowed down the process of them divesting each other of their wedding outfits, and stood back for some breathing room.

“We don’t have to dance, or anything. Do we?” Danny asked, looking up at him hopefully. “Not that, you know, I’m against it in general but… I’m not crazy about the usual crappy routine; first dance, shoving cake in each others’ faces, that whole bit.”

“I’m for skipping most of it,” Steve leaned down to pick up the assorted items now on the floor of their bedroom. “It’s a small wedding, and we told people it would be casual. They know we’re not big on formalities.”

They did have a DJ, who was already playing classic rock and some easy listening Hawaiian radio favorites. And a photographer, though Steve had asked the guy to go light on getting in everyone’s face with the camera. They also had ninety-two guests, which surprised the hell out of both of them. They’d guesstimated fifty, but as they kept adding on names they realized how fortunate they were to have friends and colleagues – more than they’d realized or appreciated.

Steve was amazed the week leading up had never gotten too stressful, even with Mary flying in and Danny’s family arriving en masse. They were staying at hotels but came by at some point every day and – that many people in and out of the house? Steve had never experienced it before. He took it as a sign of how happy he was that he’d enjoyed it ninety percent of it all. 

“Hey,” He grabbed Danny’s fingers with his once they were dressed again, pulling him to him, wrapping his arms around him for one more quiet moment together before they went back downstairs. “Have I mentioned how glad I am you said yes?”

“A couple of times in the last few months. And if you’re wondering… so am I.”

 

~*~

The reception filled the living room, covered the lawn, and spilled onto the beach; guests were dancing, mingling, even getting some wave time in. 

There had been speeches: Chin and Kono toasting their boss, who they could now say felt more like a friend; Danny’s sisters telling stories from their childhood that got everyone laughing. 

The cake cutting had been very low key, as promised; they fed each other a morsel with care, getting an audible ‘awwww’ out of the crowd, and then a wave of gently scandalized laughter when Steve reached back in to suck frosting off Danny’s finger.

They’d each danced with Grace, her standing on Steve’s feet for _their_ song. Danny only snagged about fifty pictures of that.

They had so much fun, that they even forgot to be embarrassed at taking a spin along with everyone else to “Fly Me to the Moon.”

“I hope you’ll come visit us,” Danny said to Mary, the two of them taking a breather. “It’d be good for you both, I think – not only seeing each other at weddings and funerals.”

“I hope so, too,” she nodded, picking at the celery and carrot tray. She finally looked more comfortable than she had the first two days here - like maybe she felt a bit more at home. “We lost a lot, Steve and I, being separated. It’d be nice to get some of it back; to feel more like family.”

“Speaking of Steve… where is he?”

They’d been so busy making the rounds, they’d managed to lose track of each other.

“Hey, Danny… c’mere,” Steve’s voice caught his ear right as Danny was looking around for him. “There’s someone you need to meet…”

He gave Mary a hug and moved on toward that voice, to see him picking his way through the crowd with another guy in tow.

“Hi,” Danny stuck his hand out. “Danny Williams. Good to meet you….”

“Joe White,” The guy said, sticking out a strong hand; clearly military, probably Navy, too, Danny guessed. “I’m a family friend of Steve’s.”

“Not just a friend,” Steve said. “My trainer. Got me through it and into SEALs and...”

“No, Steven,” Joe stopped him. “You got yourself into SEALS. But I’m proud to have played a role.”

“I’m glad you’re here for our day,” Danny said. “I don’t know how to say this in a way that’s, uh…politic, maybe is the word? But I’m glad you don’t look at us askance.”

“I’m happy for you both,” Joe said. “I know all Steve’s parents ever would have wanted for him is to be happy and fulfilled and looking at the two of you? Seems like that’s a ‘check’ on each count.”

“Very much, sir,” Danny said, feeling Steve beam at Danny giving his mentor the courtesy. “And we plan to do the work to keep it that way.”

~*~

The party went until well after dark. And then, tired as they were, Steve made good on his promise to wreck the bed before they slept.

“There is an entire football field worth of lawn down there that needs attention,” Danny said when they woke up at the crack of eleven. “We should…move.”

“No need,” Steve said. “Lay back down.”

“No need? What, it’s gonna clean itself up?” 

He’d seen what was left behind last night, once the last guest was gone. Not pretty.

“I hired a couple of neighborhood kids,” Steve said, rolling Danny on his back and getting up over him, planting his knees and dropping down to bump hips and kiss him between words. “Outfitted them with garbage bags and cleaning supplies, and told ‘em to leaving it looking like there’d never been a party.”

“What did you pay them for that?” 

“You don’t even want to know,” Steve dropped back and turned them again to spoon him, pulling up the sheets, burrowing in.

It was a perfect, slow first day of marriage after all the craziness of the preps and the party. 

And all the weeks leading up to it? They hadn’t talked about Island Yenta or the algorithm even once. For each of them, how they met barely factored into their lives anymore. 

All that mattered was what would come next.

~*~

**Japan – three days later**

“Did you bring them?” She asked from her doorway, waving him into her home. 

To his eyes she looked like a kid at Christmas; happier than he’d seen her in years.

“Yup. I wouldn’t dare show up here without ‘em, would I?” Joe White said, leaning in for a quick hug. “Even printed a bunch out on photo stock. Thought you’d want hard copies to thumb through.”

He shut the door to her house behind him and toed off his shoes, then they sat on the sofa and she examined them closely – her thumb caressing Steve’s face in so many of the wedding pictures. She gazed at some of the images longer than others; the ones of Danny the longest, actually, like she was trying to get a sense of him.

“Did you take some video, too?”

“I did. Figured you’d want to start off slow, though,” he said, gently, seeing happy tears threatening in her eyes. “They’re going to be fine, Doris.” 

“I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate it,” she said, waving the stack of photos at him. “You bringing these all the way here to me instead of emailing them. But …”

“ _Why_ did I bring them personally? Oh, I think you know why. I have some questions and a concern or … _five_.”

“It was a rhetorical question, I guess. I saw it written on your face all the way up my walk.”

“Doris, I’ve been more than happy to keep you apprised over the years of how your son is doing but…I feel like I really stepped in it a few months ago - telling you about Steve considering hiring that company.”

“You didn’t _step_ in anything,” Doris shrugged. “You mentioned it in passing as a thing he talked about out over lunch one day. For all you knew, he might never even pursue it.”

“That’s true. But he did, didn’t he? And then, out of nowhere this Island Yenta - a firm with a rock solid reputation makes a huge mistake.”

“Mistakes happen, Joe. All the time.”

“Was it a mistake? Or did someone take a ‘hunt and peck’ stroll through their computer network from a few thousand miles away?”

“Joe, I’m insulted,” Doris set most of the pictures down, but kept a couple to gaze as she sat back with her cup of tea. “My keyboard skills are _way_ beyond hunt and peck.”

“Doris….”

He hoped his tone would make it clear he was going to get answers whether she liked it or not.

“What if you had a child,” Doris said, slowly “…and you knew they were considering this algorithm?”

“Don’t make this hypothetical, okay?”

“What if you also had some expertise with algorithms, and knew a formula is only as good as the inputs?”

Well… he had to admit - that would be a conundrum. Especially knowing her son as they both did. 

“Steve is inclined by nature and by training to underestimate the impact life-events have played on him,” Joe finished her thought. “So he’s not gonna tell some interviewer across a table what he really wants and needs. What he fears most about getting into a relationship.”

“Exactly,” Doris gave him a ‘thank you’ nod. “How could I not be concerned …who he might end up with?”

“Kind of funny, isn’t it?” Joe cut her off. “That the company flagged Catherine as the ‘right’ answer?”

“I don’t think it’s funny at all. They could only work with what he’d told them, and on paper they look good. You told me that more than once; how they seemed great on paper with their shared careers and interests but that Steve seemed to you to be less than deeply attached.”

“Great on paper. You’re right, that’s how I’d describe them…” Joe gave the conversation a moment, debating how far to push this. “Just tell me this much, okay? Tell me you didn’t hand-pick Danny.”

“Of course not,” She looked appropriately horrified, and there was some relief in that. “I’d never play God with their lives like that.”

“But you did hack in and run the algorithm, didn’t you? To see what the results would be with different answers? Then you got their folders into each others hands and…”

“I made sure Steve had all the available information,” she said. “What he did with it from there? It was up to him.”

Her tone suggested he wasn’t getting much more out her – not today, at least. 

“Doris…. remind me never to get on your bad side.”

“Are you going to tell him?” she asked, eyes going back to the photos.

“No. I’m not gonna tell him. You are. Maybe not next month or the one after but…..”

“Time to come in from the cold, huh?” she asked. “Time to face seeing his expression…when he sees me alive after all these years?”

“I’ll keep in touch,” Joe offered. “I’ll do what I can to help ease it - for both your sakes.”

~*~

**McGarrett-Williams residence: Six Months Later**

“We don’t have to do this every half a year,” Danny said, pulling the tie around his neck.

And wow: Didn’t it say something about his life, how strange that felt – this simple gesture he used to make every day as he got dressed but now never, ever did. Then again, as much as Steve had inculcated him with local habits Danny was surprised he wasn’t wearing flip-flops out to dinner.

“No, we don’t,” Steve agreed, sitting on their bed, tying his own dress shoes and giving them a once-over looking for scuffs. “But our _first_ six-month anniversary? I want us to remember it. You don’t think it’s … over the top? Do you?”

“I do not think it’s over the top. I think it’s…. sweet, in a good way: You still wanting to wine and dine me when you already put a ring on it.”

They both chuckled, and it got an actual half a snort out of Steve before Danny went a little solemn on him again.

“What’s that look for?” He heard Steve ask. 

“Have there been some moments when you wonder? If you made the right decision?”

“Danny…. no,” Steve said, and something in Danny’s core loosened happily at the frown on that face – how clear Steve was trying to make it that he meant it. “Not for a second. Not for half a second.”

~*~

They were hopping in Danny’s car when Steve’s phone beeped – his ‘text message’ sound.

“Tell me that’s not work,” Danny said, shutting the passenger’s side door and reaching for the seat belt.

Steve pressed his feet by the floorboard and lifted up, pulled out his cell from his pocket, looking at the alert on the lock screen.

“Well, it’s not work….” He said. ‘Thank God,’ he didn’t say, but they both felt it, because for one or the other of them work interfered all too often. “It’s Joe. It’s a message from Joe White.”

“Oh,” Danny sounded relieved, Steve noted, but maybe only eighty five percent so. “Nothing urgent, I hope?”

“No, nothing… big. It can… it’ll wait.”

“What’s it say?” Danny asked again as Steve tucked the phone back in his pocket and fired up the car.

“Just…that he’s in town. Hoping we can get together tomorrow.”

Steve could feel that Danny’s P.I. skills at work: That he’d noticed how Steve put the phone out of reach instead of tossing it in the compartment between them. 

“No insult intended,” Danny said. “But that guy? He is a little intense for my taste. There’s too much going on under the hood that I don’t have a clear handle on yet, and …he gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“The….what?” Steve said.

“You heard me.”

“What does that mean, the heebie-jeebies?”

“You know what it means. Like the ‘creepey crawlies’ up your back….”

“I’ve …never heard that. I think you made it up…..”

Danny objected to that vociferously, of course, and Steve kept the quibbling going – glad for something forcing a turn in the conversation.

He listened to Danny give him grief and he smiled, enjoying it, looking forward to dinner – and trying not to think about the message on that phone screen….

_Pack a bag, son; need you to take a plane ride with me tomorrow. Bring your passport._  
\- Joe.  



End file.
